Good afternoon Members,
 
Firstly, my humblest apologies for the lack of comms from me of late – a combination of factors attributing to this – namely ridiculous workload, the time of the year and the simple fact that, basically since lockdown in August and being for the most part stuck at my dining table office, I’ll admit I have become seriously disillusioned with things outside of our control  – I guess you say I “lost my mojo” …. (there’s other names for it – but best we not venture down that track aye). But it’s okay, several self-administered stiff upper-cuts latter I am back to a level not too far off pre-lockdown.
 
Well, as you have probably gathered, owing to the difficulties of on-going Covid restrictions and corresponding lack of planning ability and venue selection – it is with a heavy heart that I announce that there will be NO end of year Club family Christmas event this year ☹. And this saddens me – its certainly the only time in my 13 years with the Club that our annual Christmas has had to be cancelled completely that I can recall – its possibly the first time in the Clubs 25 year history (yes, 25 years we have been going!) but of course, these are unlike any times we have experienced in 25 years either, so please understand that on this occasion, we really didn’t have too much choice.
 
The results of the Vax poll we ran last month were not unexpected. The vast majority of those members who took part in the poll have a preference for double-vaxed attendance at our events – whilst a small number, myself included, didn’t mind one way or the other. As I mentioned at the time – this is NOT of our doing – we have had our hand forced by powers much greater than us – regulation from Government. Our only real course of action for the time being is to insist that all members wishing to attend our events – regardless of where we are going – that they be double vaxed. We are going through the process now in time for 2022 to have a QR Code of our own for you all to scan at our meeting points and also the likelihood of a passport scanner as well. I for one am not comfortable with any of that – and I am certainly unhappy at the prospect of having to potentially decline some unvaxed members their right to attend our club runs. Its discriminatory and just wrong on many many levels, in my opinion. Now, I appreciate that we all have differing views on this – mine are not necessarily those of the Clubs, okay? And if you are wondering – no, I am not double-vaxed myself yet so that puts me in a tricky situation, as it happens.
 
Hopefully as things transgress over the coming months, the requirement for vax passes to do anything will become unnecessary and we can just get on with our lives much as we did before. That appears to be a developing trend overseas I believe? Who knows. I for one have my fingers crossed.
 
Nevertheless… on a much more positive note – the committee met for the last time for this year last Sunday (and for the first time in person in ages!) and with restrictions slowly easing as we head into 2022 we have put in place tentative and semi-confirmed plans for Club events beginning again as soon as January, right the way through to May 2022! And one of those – no not Kumeu – is going to be the biggy – the ‘replacement’ so to speak of our cancelled Christmas. I’m excited! We’re calling it the ‘Kick Start the Car Club’ event and we have a slot late February penciled in for that. And we sincerely trust that it will in some way make up for the lack of club activities these past four months – details to follow once we get confirmation of venue availability. And we have some wonderful shed-raids scheduled for the first and second quarters of 2022 as well, including another visit to members Dave & Catherine Parkers wonderful property and car collection – for any new members reading this, this is a must see!
 
But we are just going to ease back into it, see how the restrictions under the traffic light circus affect what we can and cannot freely do. As a little teaser so you can pencil some/all of these dates into your calendars, please see below:

Please regularly check the Club Website https://www.americanclassiccars.org.nz/ for event updates too – as well as visiting the Cork Board, which is being updated regularly by Russell. Of particular interest on the Cork Board is a series of Video’s that we are fortunate enough to be able to share with you all, from a Canadian classic car enthusiast, a chap by the name of David Langford (had to have ‘Ford’ in his name didn’t he, lol) who approached us a while ago now – wanting to share his classic car experiences from his neck of the woods with like-minded individuals like us. What a cool guy! And his video’s are frankly excellent! There's plenty been uploaded already so please do take the opportunity to view them and even comment on them in the comments blog – I am sure he would welcome the feedback as he visits our site often. If anyone wishes to contact David directly as a result of what you may have seen on these clips – let me know and I’ll pass your contact details onto him – sort of an electronic pen-pal situation. Cool.
 
Lastly – a HUGE thanks to all of you for hanging in there over what has been a truly difficult year for many. Yes, we have sadly lost several members (no, not ‘lost’ that way… don’t be so morbid, lol)  as a result of changes in their personal circumstances – hopefully we’ll see the majority of those re-join when things improve. But we have also gained new members through all of this and also have had members return – welcome back Steve Plester for instance. Regardless, I for one are very humbled by your continued support of the ACCCA and we look forward to seeing you at an event sometime soon. On behalf of the committee, I wish each and every one of you a safe, happy and wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Norm… I mean Year… 😊
 
Rob.
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Hi there members, what a simply gorgeous Saturday morning!
 
Firstly, I did a bit of a ring-around to our West Auckland based members earlier in the week, just to see if everyone was okay after the deluge that swept over the West during Monday evening and into the early hours of Tuesday morning – I hope I got everyone? If you didn’t hear from me, my apologies but maybe text or call me just to let us know the status of where you are. It seems, for the most part, our members did not suffer too badly. Dave Roper had his basement flood (again) but only really because of known drainage issues that – ironically – were due to be resolved the previous week – but Lockdown put paid to that idea. Typical. And Steve and Alexis had some water ingress through their ranch sliders as a result of an over-full water tank and nowhere for the excess water to go. Everyone else assures me they are fine. Good to know! As if Covid and its associated lockdown difficulties were not enough to deal with.
 
And then we have the terrible incident yesterday, at Lynn Mall Countdown – hopefully none of our members got caught up in that tragedy. I am sure you all share our thoughts for the innocent victims and wish them a full and speedy recovery. What a state this country is becoming – society in general – it truly worries and saddens me. Once upon a time, Fruit-Loops were something you may have had for breakfast – now they seem to be in all walks of life… I’m led to believe, there’s even some in Parliament … ☹ . So please, do take care.
 
As you know, our ‘out-of-Auckland’ members (of which we have quite a few) are now down one level to Level 3. Auckland remains in Level four until at least 11.59pm Tuesday September 14th – and we will likely only go down one level to Level 3 if we do at all. Northland members had their reduction to Level 3 this Thursday.
 
This means of course that our scheduled run on Sunday September 19th is, in all probability unlikely to proceed, so we have made tentative arrangements to move this run out a month, to October, provided we are down to level 2 by then. Understandably, we can’t confirm anything at this stage. But we’ll let you know when we do.
 
For your reading pleasure in the mean time, I have attached is the latest Newsletter from the FoMC and of course, the Club Corkboard https://www.americanclassiccars.org.nz/corkboard  is being updated regularly with articles and photos that members have filed – and there is even a list of the new members that the Club has gained already, since January. For those very new additions that we have not yet met in person – your timing has been unfortunate, to say the least! Lol. Seriously though, to all of you, welcome to the American Classic Car Club Auckland and we look forward to the eventual opportunity to get back out in our Classics and enjoy each other’s company.
 
I’m still considering another Club Quiz for the coming week… so keep an eye on those inboxes.
 
Many thanks, be safe…
 
Rob.
 
Rob Milligan – President
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Wow… how’s that… October 2020 already… hard to believe barely 6 months ago the country was going into our first Covid-19 Lockdown! What a crazy crazy year! And it’s not over yet. Covid hasn’t really gone – it’s just being arguably better managed – and as you read this we are about to head into, or had, our Nation’s rescheduled General Election, so you can be almost assured that 2020 hasn’t finished dishing out the surprises yet, for better or for worse.

Speaking of elections, you will be interested I hope, to know the outcome of our own Club Committee elections earlier this month? Firstly, a huge thank you for everyone that took the opportunity to have your say in a) how the Club is being run and b) by whom.
And the results are in! We had a voter turnout of a pinch under 60% of our membership, which is pretty darn decent really and actually even better than last year, which was also excellent. Your current committee, me included, have all been unanimously voted back in for another term, so big congrats to Russell, Dave, Phil O, Phil S, Peter, Carl and Allan. Well done team, thanks for having my back again for another year, the finest bunch of people to run this neat club of ours you’ll likely meet.

Dave Roper has prepared the Club financials again for the year, which you will find in the Members section of the Website. As you are all aware, this year has been quite the challenge health-wise for Dave, but he has come back strongly and is getting better by the day.
Thank you also to those of you whom took the opportunity to pass comment on our performance this year, which for the most part was very favourable, considering we really didn’t have opportunity to do a whole lot for a third of it! Awesome! Rest assured, we do take your comments on board and any suggestions, recommendations and constructive criticisms will be robustly discussed at our next scheduled committee meeting.

With regards to what happens in twelve months’ time, when we do it all again, it’s anyone’s guess. Peter Lee and Allan Huljich have both indicated this coming year will be their collective last on our committee, so we will be looking for new blood in 12 months’ time. We will also be looking at how we can do that, actually the whole electronic voting format to be honest, better than we presently are. It’s all evolution after all. Watch this space.

Which leads me nicely onto you guys – the members. Rest assured, nothing your executive does means anything at all without your continued support and encouragement. I mean that. We are only the providers in what we do as a Club. You guys are the real reason we are cracking along as well as we are in clearly quite unprecedented times. Without your continued membership, your continued enthusiasm for our Club, we would be in an entirely different place.

So a heart-felt thank you to all of you, from me and your committee. Cheers!
See you soon, Rob.